CARBON…Being unique in its characteristics and behaviour

                           CARBON

carbon is an interesting element found inside as well as outside the earth's crust. It's natural occurrence in the organic world makes it a mind teasing subject or topic of study.

what makes carbon one of the unique elements? To understand this first of all let us take a short summary of it's atomic composition. It is the 6th element present in the periodic table with the atomic number 6;meaning that it has 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons. These 6 electrons occupy two shells of the atom; first shell having 2 electrons and the second or the outermost shell having 4 electrons. 
Now let us analyse the electronic configuration of carbon which is 1s2 2s2 2p2. This configuration indicates that the second shell is short of 4 electrons to gain stability and complete the octet. Hence the valency of carbon is 4, which means that it requires to lose or gain 4 electrons for its stable configuration. Both the options of gaining or losing electrons is not feasible because of huge energy considerations. These four electrons are aligned in the shape of a tetrahedron forming four attachments or bonds at a bond angle of approximately 109.5^{o .}
This gives carbon a tetrahedral shape. Here we see that carbon enters into the covalent bond formation. The tetrahedral arrangement of bonds is important in understanding the concepts of chirality and enantiomers in organic chemistry. 
Another very unique characteristic of carbon is catenation. Now we may understand the meaning of catenation. This is a unique property of carbon where it can form long chains or structures by bonding with other carbon atoms. This property of carbon gives way to the existence of many organic compounds present in nature. 
To understand the occurrence of carbon in the organic compounds present; the study summed up as organic chemistry, a detailed lesson is required which will be posted in the next week.